My name is Mi Man Tian and I am a student at Sichuan University. I have recently been gathering information and investigating into the public distrust of the nationalist party and I have found that many people believe that the upstart Chinese Communist Party may be the answer to many of the problems plaguing China for so long. In this report, I will shine a light on the failures of the Chinese Nationalist Party with excerpts from interviews with Chinese citizens like you and me and how people believe the CCP would be better suited to handle these issues.
The first and most obvious issue to me is the issue of the warlords. The nationalist party went on their famous North Expedition a few years ago, led by Chiang Kaishek to expel all the warlords from the countryside. This was great news for the country, but it alienated the poor peasants living there. One peasant I got the chance to interview named Mo Wen Hua said “When warlords got in a fight, people’s lives were completely devasted.” With the Northern Expedition, many peasants feel that their lives were forgotten and not important but the CCP has plans to change that. Mao and his party set up camps in small rural villages to connect with the peasants which made them feel like they mattered again. Whether this is just a political ploy to gain followers for the revolution or not is yet to be seen but the CCP has an opportunity to build its party in the rural areas of China.
Next, another issue that the Nationalist Party has not focused on is the plight of the working class. The conditions of the factories in cities that are majorly operated by middle-class young people are well below safe let alone satisfactory. In addition, the workers are working for the factory owners and not seeing a fair share of the fruits of their labor. One working-class woman I interviewed named Qiu Hui-ying had this to say about the conditions and wants of the proletariat, “I came to Shanghai when I was 12. We were so miserable that you had to work 17 hours a day… “There is a country where there is no oppression and no exploitation, where everybody has a job and food… if only our country could be like that”. This quote showed me that the workers are unhappy with their pay and their hours and the CCP would be a great alternative to this with their advocacy for workers’ rights and improved conditions in the factories.
The last issue I want to discuss is the current standing of equality and social justice in the country. I have seen firsthand the treatment of our women in traditional Chinese society in my mother because she was forced into the practice of footbinding which symbolizes the oppression of Chinese women for generations. I interviewed two women who wanted to share their stories about the inequalities they have seen in their own lives. The first woman Wan Xiang said, “One of the four tyrant landlords by the name of Joe came to our house and saw my 15-year-old sister and took her to be his wife. He not only wanted to take my sister, he also wanted me to be his maid…My father didn’t know what to do. Rather than let me be a maid, my father sold me as a child bride.” The other woman named Xie Pei-Ian said this about possibly joining the revolution, “People told me if I joined the revolution, I would have my freedom. I could choose who I wanted to marry. If I didn’t join, I’d have to marry this man who was over 30. So I thought if revolution could save me from this, I would join.” The testimonies from these two women have shown me that as a society we have been stuck in the past for too long. If you look at the West, a man needs the permission of a woman to become her husband. Women are tired of getting taken and sold when their families’ backs are against the wall and if the CCP is true to its word, its policies might be the way to propel us into modernity.
The Nationalist government’s inability to effectively address these pressing issues and unite the country under a single banner is what is leading to the popularity of the CCP. Its promises to not only fix the wrongdoings of the Nationalist party but also fix issues that have affected people in this country for generations might be enough to swing the public in its favor.
Mi Man Tian, I find your coverage of the Nationalist Party from your perspective very interesting. I think that what makes your coverage even better is your focus on the peasants and their perspectives. Though I will not speak too much on opinions of the Nationalist party, I do believe you are correct in your criticism of their failures. I look forward to reading your next dispatch.
Gao An Zhi
Dear Mi Man Tian,
I really appreciated the fact that you interviewed different women about their experiences navigating China’s Confucian patriarchal society. The points that you raised about the restrictive practices of footbinding, arranged marriages, and the selling of women all really resonated with me. I watched my sister bind her feet since our childhood, and I watched her and and my brother-in-law enter into a marriage without even getting the opportunity to know each other first, and I have long dreaded the same fate, but I agree with your analysis that the CCP offers promise to bring about an end to these restrictive policies. I look forward to continue reading your work in the future!
Sincerely, Lei Ju